Percussion concertos are more common than they used to be, but HK Gruber, whose background includes both avant-garde ensembles and mainstream orchestral playing, may be the only composer to have written more than one. Both of the works here are dense but quite entertaining. They were written some years apart; Rough Music dates from 1982-1983, while into the open…, had its premiere in 2015, in the BBC Proms performance recorded here. Rough Music is perhaps the easier introduction to Gruber's idiom, which includes a lot of percussion, even in other works.

Considered by some to be the ‘Cinderella’ of his symphonies, the Sixth Symphony of Anton Bruckner was composed in 1879 – 81. It may well demonstrate a reaction to the severe criticism of the first Viennese performance, in 1877, of his Third Symphony, which Eduard Hanslick described as a vision of how Beethoven’s Ninth befriends Wagner’s Walküre and ends up being trampled under her horses’ hoofs’. Much the shortest of his mature symphonies, the Sixth also reverts to a more classical form than its predecessors. This recording was made in 2012, during the first season of Juanjo Mena as Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, and just a month before their acclaimed performance of the work at the BBC Proms. Classical Source commented: ‘Mena didn’t miss a trick and the result for the whole symphony was a revelation, and you don’t get many of those. This was a thrilling, delightful performance.’

Colin Currie presents the first concerto album on his own label, a pairing of works by the innovative composer, conductor and chansonnier HK Gruber. “To write one masterpiece for solo percussion and orchestra may be regarded as an adventure; to write two combines for a colossus. Such is the case for the dual works on this recording, which span the full creative freedom, magic, daring and brilliance of Mr HK Gruber, or ‘Nali’ to those who know him."